Author: FELC Office

Join us for Faith Formation this Sunday, October 20. Children will meet in the FELC Library at 9am, where Bailey Barlow will lead a session on James and John. Adults will meet in the Parlor at 9am, where Cantor Bryan Rust will review our transition ministry, celebrate our achievements together in these last 21 months, and present our next steps.  There will be hot coffee & treats. Hope to see you then for our engagement & fellowship as a church family! 

On Sunday October 27, Leigh Northcutt-Benson will lead Children’s Faith Formation with the lesson, Bartimeaus Sees. Pastor Bob Karli and Cantor Bryan Rust will provide the second installment of the series, Prepare to Die! Funeral Planning and Making Final Arrangements. 

We invite you to pray for the safety and strength of communities impacted by recent hurricanes & wildfires and for emergency and trade services personnel who are responding diligently. May God’s healing presence give peace and hope. Pray that God will comfort those who mourn.

 Lutheran Disaster Response is on the ground in places of devastation. You are invited to pray for them and support their work financially by going to www.elca.org/ldr and clicking on the Give Now button.

At the festival of the Reformation we celebrate the heart of our faith: the gospel of Christ—the good news—that makes us free to live God’s love fully. By the end of the seventeenth century, many Lutheran churches celebrated a festival commemorating All Hallows Eve, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg, Germany. These were a summary of abuses in the church of his time and his call to action. We pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to re-form and empower the whole church in this age and in this place in our witness of love, justice, healing, and joy. The church color associated with the Holy Spirit is red, and we invite you to wear some red on that Sunday.

Join Cantor Bryan Rust on Sunday, October 20 at 9am in the parlor during our Faith Formation time. We’ll review our transition ministry, celebrate our achievements together in these last 21 months, and have a brief overview of our next steps. There will be hot coffee & treats. Hope to see you then for our engagement & fellowship as a church family! 

Thank you to Fred Woody for leading a Children’s Faith Formation session on St. Francis on October 6, along with coordinating the petting zoo! We also are grateful for Andy Maclaren and Rev. Barry Smith for kicking off our Better Know A Ministry Series with an overview of Micah 6.

On Sunday, October 13, Merrily Porter will be leading Children’s Faith Formation on the subject, A Rich Man’s Question, 9 am in the FELC Library. Leigh Northcutt-Benson will be leading an Adult Faith Formation Session about Project 2025, 9 am in the Parlor.

On Sunday, October 20, Bailey Barlow will be leading a Children’s Faith Formation session on James and John and Cantor Bryan Rust will be leading a Transition Ministry Update and Celebration.

On Sunday, October 6, as part of our “Blessing of Animals” celebration Fred Woody will lead a Children’s Faith Formation session on Saints, specifically the story of Saint Francis of Assissi, gathering at 9 am in the FELC Library. Following the 10:00 am worship service, “Tiny Tails to You” will have some of God’s small creatures in the Fellowship Hall for children of all ages to hold and pet until 12:15.

Also on Sunday, October 6, join us for the opening session of the 2024-2025 Learning Ministry Series, Better Know a Ministry. The idea behind this series is to provide a space for all FELC service, worship, and support ministries to share information with the wider FELC community regarding their ministries and current operations. The first session on October 6 will be led by Rev. Barry Smith and Andy Maclaren, featuring an overview of Micah 6, 9 am in the Parlor. Our next featured ministry in this series will be Stewardship, coming in November. 

On Sunday, October 13, Merrily Porter will be leading Children’s Faith Formation on the subject, A Rich Man’s Question, 9 am in the FELC Library. Leigh Northcutt-Benson will be leading an Adult Faith Formation Session about Project 2025, 9 am in the Parlor. Please join us!

On Sunday, October 6, everyone is invited to bring their leashed and contained pets for a blessing of the animals, a St. Francis Feast Day* tradition. 

Dogs, cats, frogs, gerbils, snakes, birds, and hamsters, among others, will be invited for an individual blessing in the worship service. Soft animal toys, photos, and mementos will also be blessed. 

Our worship service will be inside the sanctuary & online at 10:00 am. 

During hospitality time at 11:15 am, we will host a Petting Zoo in the Fellowship Hall. Tiny Tails To You will be at FELC for in-person animal snuggles, with experiences for all ages. For more information on Tiny Tails, visit www.tinytailstoyou.com

We hope to meet you and our animal friends!

*Saint Francis of Assisi, renewer of the church, died October 4, 1226

Born into the family of a wealthy merchant, Francis gave up his inheritance to serve poor people. He formed the Order of Friars Minor (called Franciscans), who took on poverty and the task of preaching “using words if necessary.” Francis had a spirit of gratitude for all of God’s creation.

The FELC Book Club will meet Sunday, October 13, 1-3 PM, at the home of Kymrie Dinsmore.  We will share a potluck lunch and discuss our October book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande, available at Austin Public Library, Amazon, and Bookfinder.

Here’s the summary from amazon.com:

In Being Mortal, best-selling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession’s ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person’s last weeks or months may be rich and dignified. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life – all the way to the very end.

The Southwestern Texas Synod joyously invites you to the ordination of the Rev. Katherine Ann Graham as Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in McDade, Saturday, October 12, 2024, at 3:00 pm, St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, 606 W 15th St. | Austin, TX 78701. Ordained by Bishop Susan Briner, of the Southwestern Texas Synod. The color of the day is red.

Ann served with First English from September, 2020 – May, 2021, during her Supervised Practice of Ministry through Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary as an ELCA candidate for ordained ministry. You may send Ann an acknowledgement:  anngraham@sbcglobal.net

Included here is the latest summary of what Micah 6 is doing in the community.  Thanks to President LaRu Woody and the FELC Council for their comments and suggestions. Soon we hope to have an Austin Police Officer who is experienced in dealing with the Micah 6 clientele and their specific issues. Also under consideration is to engage specialists from Austin ISD to work with our younger clients with similar behavioral and/or mental health issues.  My heartfelt thanks to council members Leigh Northcutt-Benson and Ben Rode for their suggestions in this area.

Keep bringing your donations to the plastic bins near the fellowship hall doors and in the narthex. Thanks to Teresa Ringness who plans to bring coats when we get respite from this heat!

Here’s our most current critical needs:

Micah 6 Food Pantry:

Canned fruit

Canned vegetables

Canned meat

Rice

Clothing of any type—adult and children’s

Youth Drop-in Center:

Extra large size men’s clothing

Small and medium size women’s clothing

Men’s shoes, both tennis and other

Men’s tee shirts

Cell phone chargers

Old laptop computers, iPads and phones, which have had their data scrubbed

 Contact Andy MacLaren. Micah 6. 512-947-4186. andymaclaren@cs.com.